Celta Vigo fought back with two late goals in quick succession to hold Barcelona to an-action-packed 2-2 draw. It looked as though Barça were cruising towards victory after the La Liga leaders opened a two-goal lead thanks to strikes by Raphinha in the first half and by Robert Lewandowski after an hour’s play, but the script changed when Marc Casadó was sent off due to a second yellow card for a foul in the 82nd minute.
With Barcelona down to 10 men, the home side piled on the pressure and managed to score twice, through Alfonso González then Hugo Álvarez in the 84th and 86th minutes respectively.
“We had the game under control, but the red card really affected us,” said Gavi, who was making his first start since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear. “We can’t allow ourselves to have a player sent off because then those things happen. Their first goal was stupid. We have to clear the ball away. And with one man down it’s difficult to get the three points.” Gavi was referring to the defender Jules Koundé mishandling the ball on the edge of Barcelona’s box that allowed González to pounce and steal it before firing Celta’s goal first past Iñaki Peña.
Diego Simeone’s 700th game in charge of Atlético Madrid ended in a late 2-1 win over Alavés after Alexander Sørloth saved the home side with an 86th-minute winner at the Metropolitano Stadium. The sides had earlier traded penalties, Jon Guridi giving the visitors the lead and Antoine Griezmann equalising. With a draw on the cards, Rodrigo De Paul found Sørloth making a run in behind and the Norwegian’s strike squeezed in at the near post to move Atlético up to second.
Girona thrashed Espanyol 4-1 thanks to a superb double from Bojan Miovski and goals from Bryan Gil and Ladislav Krejci.
In Serie A, Inter hammered lowly Verona 5-0 away from home to move top of Serie A overnight, with all five goals coming in the first half. Joaquín Correa opened the scoring after 17 minutes, before Marcus Thuram added a quick-fire double and Stefan de Vrij and Yann Bisseck also found the net. “We managed to win a very important match,” Inter’s coach, Simone Inzaghi, told DAZN.
Inter, who were held to a 1-1 home draw by Napoli before the international break, moved on to 28 points from 13 games, two points ahead of second-placed Napoli who host Roma on Sunday.
Milan and Juventus played out a 0-0 draw at San Siro, in a game light on entertainment and low on chances. The final whistle was greeted by a chorus of boos from the crowd.
Juventus remain the only unbeaten side in Serie A but their seventh draw of the season means they remain sixth in the standings and are now three points behind Inter. Milan stay seventh, six points behind Juve, though they have played one game fewer.
The Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick bagged a hat-trick to help the German champions battle back from a two-goal deficit and crush Heidenheim 5-2 in the Bundesliga.
The Czech forward got the nod after Victor Boniface was ruled out with a muscle injury and he made the most of his chance as Leverkusen won their first match after three consecutive league draws.
It was only the second league win in their last seven games for Xabi Alonso’s team, who won the domestic double last season undefeated. With the champions contesting eight matches in four weeks, including their German Cup clash against Bayern Munich on 3 December, they have to contend with a crammed schedule.
Leverkusen, who first take on RB Salzburg in the Champions League on Tuesday, are on 20 points in fourth place, nine behind Bayern, the leaders, who were 3-0 winners over Augsburg on Friday. RB Leipzig lost 4-3 against Hoffenheim and slipped to third, one point ahead of Leverkusen, after Eintracht Frankfurt moved into second on 23 after their 1-0 win over Werder Bremen courtesy of a Mario Götze goal. Borussia Dortmund are a point behind Leverkusen after beating Freiburg 4-0.
